City of Brass

This is something that is so obvious, it is in danger of never being said, in which case those who led us into war will try to pretend it isn’t true as they argue the case for the next one. Simply put – the Iraq War (a war of choice, irrelevant to 9-11, sold to the public on the basis of weapons of mass destruction that never existed) is directly responsible for the rise of ISIS:

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In the broadest view, Isis seems the product of a catastrophic war – the Anglo-American assault on Iraq. There is no doubt that the ground for it was prepared by this systematic devastation – the murder and displacement of millions, which came after more than a decade of brutalisation by sanctions and embargoes. The dismantling of the Iraqi army, de-Ba’athification and the Anglo-American imprimatur to Shia supremacism provoked the formation in Mesopotamia of al-Qaida, Isis’s precursor. Many local factors converged to make Isis’s emergence possible last year: vengeful Sunnis; reorganised Ba’athists in Iraq; the co-dependence of the west on despotic allies (al-Sisi, al-Maliki) and incoherence over Syria; the cynical manoeuvres of Assad; Turkey’s hubristic neo-Ottomanism, which seems exceeded in its recklessness only by the actions of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States.

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The failure of the Arab Spring has also played a part. Tunisia, its originator, has sent the largest contingent of foreign jihadis to Iraq and Syria. Altogether an estimated 17,000 people, mostly young men, from 90 countries have travelled to Syria and Iraq to offer their services to Isis. Dozens of British women have gone, despite the fact that men of Isis have enslaved and raped girls as young as 10 years old, and stipulated that Muslim girls marry between the ages of nine and 17, and live in total seclusion. “You can easily earn yourself a higher station with God almighty,” a Canadian insurrectionist, Andre Poulin, exhorted in a video used by Isis for online recruitment, “by sacrificing just a small bit of this worldly life.”

Ironically, had we done nothing in Iraq, the Arab Spring might have succeeded – in Iraq first. And that might have resulted in different outcomes in Egypt, in Syria…

I am honored to be invited to celebrate Eid al Fitr at the State Department again this year. And I am relieved that this time, it’s actually taking place after Ramadan, which means I can actually attend for the first time! I am looking forward to meeting Secretary Kerry and thanking him for his tireless work, congratulate him for his leadership in the Iran negotiations, and praising him for his clear assertion at Davos that there’s nothing inherently Islamic about violent extremism.

I’ll land in DC tonight and will hopefully have time to write my thoughts stay tuned…

As is tradition, the Empire State Building – the most beautiful skyscraper in the world – was illuminated in green to mark Eid al Fitr. Of course, in 2015, this is announced via the official twitter account

Eid at the State DepartmentI am honored to be invited to celebrate Eid al Fitr at the State Department again this year. And I am relieved that this time, it's actually taking place after Ramadan, which means I can actually attend for the first time! :) I am looking ...

The Empire State goes green for EidAs is tradition, the Empire State Building - the most beautiful skyscraper in the world - was illuminated in green to mark Eid al Fitr. Of course, in 2015, this is announced via the official twitter account ...

Ramadan Pearls roundupHere is a link to all the posts in the Ramadan Pearls series I did during Ramadan:
Criterion
Non-existence
Mystery
Angels
Objective
Expectant
Reed
Veils
Lend
Good
I hope you enjoyed these nuggets of wisdom as much as ...

Eid Mubarak!By the Fatimid calendar, today is Eid al Fitr, 1436!
I've explained my position on the calendar vs. moonsighting debate in detail - and this year there is a lot more divergence on the date than usual. Crescentwatch nicely ...

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About City of Brass

City of Brass by Aziz Poonawalla approaches issues from the perspective of a Muslim of the West. Aziz, a member of the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community, has been blogging since early 2003 and co-founded the Brass Crescent Awards for the muslim blogsphere.